The holidays are here, and we all reach for the same movies every year. The past decade, however, has given us plenty of quiet Christmas contemporary classics. Indie auteurs and mumblecore regulars like Edward Burns, Joe Swanberg, and Tyler Taormina have the antidote to Frosty’s big musical numbers and Die Hard’s fiery explosions. Love Actually will still be there next year, so give one of these movies a try:
The Baltimorons (2025)
Let’s start with the most recent film, mumblecore pioneer Jay Duplass‘ latest feature, The Baltimorons. I am a Baltimorean (and occasional Baltimoron myself), so you can trust me when I say that this movie is a sensation around these parts. This Christmas movie opened at one of the town’s finest independent moviehouses in October and is still running through the holidays. Marvel movies don’t get theatrical windows like that anymore. Walking tours of the movie’s locations have become an immediate Christmas tradition for so many. It’s been in the papers every other day and all over social media. We love this sweet little movie because it’s about the oddballs that make up our favorite place.
Michael Strassner (also a co-writer with Duplass, based loosely on his real-life) stars as Cliff, a struggling improv comedian, recovering alcoholic, and recent suicide attemptee. There’s nothing seasonal about the depression he’s battling. When he chips his tooth on Christmas Eve, he finds the only dentist with nothing better to do, Didi (Liz Larsen), a divorcee whose kids have chosen their father that evening. They aren’t exactly a natural romantic fit, but it doesn’t take long (just one trip around the city’s seasonal hotspots) for them to realize just how alike they really are. Lonely and looking for a connection, yes. But also funny, spontaneous, and honest. They are the kinds of people who make Baltimore what it is, which is more than just The Wire.
The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012)
If Nancy Meyers’ The Holiday (2006) is in your Christmas rotation every year (it’s on mine only because it’s in my girlfriend’s), you may recognize Edward Burns as Cameron Diaz‘s crappy ex-boyfriend. He’ll pop up in parts like that from time to time, but the writer/director has made it clear he takes these roles to fund his own super-low-budget films. He’s been doing this for 30 years now, using Saving Private Ryan (1998) and 27 Dresses (2008) to finance his indies about families that look a lot like his own. His latest film, The Family McMullen (2025), is the Thanksgiving-bookended, three-decades-later follow-up to his debut feature, The Brothers McMullen (1995).
But if we’re talking about Christmas, we turn to 2012’s The Fitzgerald Family Christmas. While it may be true that if you’ve seen one Ed Burns movie, you’ve seen them all (wait, they’re Irish in this one? No way!), this one is not only particularly good, but it has that annual rewatchability built in. Burns plays one of nine children (frequent collaborators Kerry Bishé and Michael McGlon are standouts) debating and deciding if they should let their no-good, walk-out father come to Christmas this year, one that very well may be his last. It’s less a movie about conflict and more about love, acceptance, and forgiveness. It’s about family, and nobody does family like Ed Burns.
Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (2024)
While this is a list of quiet Christmas movies, films like The Baltimorons and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas at least have some drama. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point has basically none. It’s a hangout movie in the most literal sense of the term; it is exactly like hanging out with your family, some of whom you only see once a year, at the annual family get-together. It’s about exchanging presents, going on the family walk, telling your aunt about how school is going, sneaking out to the garage for a smoke break, wondering if we should put Mom in a home, and being pissed off that you’re still not old enough to graduate from the kids’ table. I’ll be at one of these parties in just a few days.
Filmmaker Tyler Taormina made a couple of weirdo movies before this, such as Ham on Rye (2019) and Happer’s Comet (2022), that caused walk-outs and polarizing opinions. This slice-of-life series of vignettes was not what audiences expected next. But armed with a few recognizable faces, like Michael Cera (also a producer on the film), Ben Shenkman, Francesca Scorsese, Gregg Turkington, and Elise Fisher, his latest feature isn’t nearly as disagreeable. Some may find it sad, others sweet—all will find it wonderfully sentimental.
Happy Christmas (2014)
Joe Swanberg, one of the most recognizable and influential indie filmmakers of the last two decades, has built a career by making the kinds of movies that look like the other movies on this list—modest, mature, and oftentimes mumblecore. And he’s made a lot of them—in just three years, from 2011 to 2013, he directed or co-directed eleven features about regular, everyday people. His version of a holiday film, 2014’s Happy Christmas, is no different.
Jenny (Anna Kendrick, who appeared in a handful of Swanberg’s films around this time), just broke up with her boyfriend, and, with nowhere else to go, moves in with her brother, Kevin (Swanberg), his wife, Kelly (Melanie Lynskey), and their baby boy, Jude (Swanberg’s real-life son Jude, in the role he was born to play.) She’s irresponsible, lacking any direction, and maybe an alcoholic. It doesn’t help that her best friend, Carson (Lena Dunham), encourages all of her bad behavior. That unpredictability upends the peace in their house, peace so important to a chill and relaxing holiday. It’s a cute little story about how much we love our family, and an incredibly stressful film that makes us question why we do that.
Feast of the Seven Fishes (2019)
As you can see, the importance and the beauty of family are at the forefront of most holiday cinema because, well, it’s the holidays! Whether you like it or not, this time of year is about family, the one we get and the one we choose. Feast of the Seven Fishes is about a big, broad, and brash Italian-American family and the eponymous meal that’s essential to their festivities. And yes, I can tell you that this is exactly what Italians are like.
Skyler Gisondo plays Tony, the lead in a truly ensemble picture, representing one generation of the huge Oliverio family. You’ve got the grandmother who still only speaks Italian (the late Lynn Cohen), the uncle who puts himself in charge of flipping the fish (Paul Ben-Victor), and the uncle who maybe, probably, you know what, is in the mafia (Joe Pantoliano, I hate to say it, but Bill Simmons is right—Joey Pants does make everything better.) Tony brings his crush (Madison Iseman) over to his family’s party, and she sees just how crazy they really are. I guess that’s a part of the movie’s truth; we all think our families are crazy. And wild. And embarrassing. And special. Tony’s family is. Yours is, too. That’s what these movies are about.
List Courtesy of Patrick Regal
Feature Image from ‘Happy Christmas’ via Magnolia Pictures